Deep well pump



May 29, 1956 M. c. TURNER 5TM.

DEEP WELL PUMP Filed Nov.

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DEEP WELL PUMP Marshall C. Turner and Theodore Miles, Long Beach,

Calif., assignors to Phillips Petroleum Company, a corporation ofDelaware Application November 25, 1952, Serial No. 322,444

6 Claims. (Cl. 10S-46) This invention relates to oil well pumps. In oneaspeet it relates to an oil well pump not requiring use of rotatingparts. In another aspect it relates to oil well pumps employing areciprocating column of liquid to operate a pump piston. In stillanother aspect it relates to deep well pumps.

Conventional oil well pumps require either a sucker rod for actuatingthe piston of areciprocating pump or a owing column of liquid or gasunder pressure. In the type of pump employing gas or liquid theexhausted gas or liquid is usually added to the production liquid fordisposal.

In the pump assembly of our invention we employ a reciprocating columnof liquid to impart a reciprocating movement to a pump plunger. In thismanner only a very limited amount of liquid need ever be used foractuating the pump. The same liquid as is being pumped or any otherdesirable liquid may be used as a power liquid since it is not added tothe oil being pumped.

An object of our invention is to devise an oil well pump having norotating parts for use in deep wells.

Another object of our invention is to devise an oil well pump requiringa minimum of power for its operation.

Still another object of our invention is to provide an oil well pumphaving a minimum number of moving parts.

Yet another object of our invention is to provide an oil well pump whichis actuated by a liquid under pressure but which requires only a verysmall volume of pressure liquid.

Yet other objects and advantages of our invention will be realized uponreading the following description which combined with the attacheddrawing forms a part of this specification.

Our pump is built and operated on the principle of utilizinga rigidassembly of several pistons of dilerent areas, in which the upstroke ofthe piston assembly is powered by a pressure liquid and the downstrokeis powered by the force imparted by the column of production oilimparted to the piston having a relatively large area.

In the drawing, Figure l is a longitudinal view, partly in section, ofone embodiment of my invention. Figure 2 illustrates this apparatus in adeep well. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate additional embodiments of myinvention,

Referring now to the drawing and specilcally to Figure l, the pumpassembly ot' our invention is mounted on or in the lower end ot aconventional production tubing. In Figure 1 we illustrate our pumpapparatus as being attached to the lower end of a production tubing 11.The pump is enclosed in a large diameter tube which is held to thetubing 11 by a bushing 12. Near the lower end of this large diametertube 15 are a number of openings 17 for admission of oil from the wellbore to the pump inlet. Within this tube 15 is attached a pump case 16by threads 14 orby other means, not shown. This pump case 16 constitutesthree cylinders of different diameters. These cylinders include an uppercylinder 18 of largev diameter, a next lower cylinder 20 of intermediatediameter Patented May 29, 1956 and a small diameter bottom cylinder 22.Fitted into these cylinders is a piston assembly composed of a largediameter piston 19, an intermediate diameter piston 21 and a smalldiameter piston 23. At the bottom of the small diameter cylinder 22 isprovided a conventional ball valve 24. Along the axis of the pistonassembly is provided a conduit 26 containing a ball valve 25 at a pointnear its lower end. The ball valve 24 is intended to permit the flow ofoil from the space outside of the small diameter cylinder 22 into aspace 33 inside cylinder 22. Ball valve 25 allows oil flow from thespace 33 to conduit 26.

At the lower end of the large diameter cylinder section 19 are providedvents 31 for inflow and outflow of oil as the piston raises and lowersduring its operation.

When the piston assembly is in a raised position an annular space 30 isfor-med below the large diameter piston section 19 and around the pistonof intermediate diameter. In like manner an annular space 32 is formedbelow the intermediate diameter piston and around the small diameterpiston 33. In this latter annular space 32 the power liquid is forcedunder pressure for raising the piston assembly. The power liquid entersthis annular space 32 from a tube and conduit assembly which includes atube 27 disposed in the oil production tubing 11, a horizontal conduit28 in the head of the cylinder assembly 16, one or more verticalpassageways 29 in the wall of the large diameter cylinder section 1S,and one or more tubes 13. In the head of the large diameter cylindersection 18 is provided openings 34 t'or the outilow of production liquidfrom the pump apparatus to the production tubing 11.

In the operation of this pump, the upstroke of the pis-v ton assemblydraws oil through ball valve 24 into the space 33. At the same time oilon top of piston 19 is forced through openings 34 into the productiontubing 11 for transmission up the tubing. On the downstroke of thepiston the ball valve 24 closes and the ball valve 25 opens and the oilin space 33 ows upward through conduit 26 into the space above piston19. As far as production oil is concerned these several operationalsteps complete the cycle.

To actuate the piston it is merely necessary to exert pressure at thesurface of the ground on the oil in tube 27. This pressure istransmitted down tube 27 and is transmitted through conduits 28, 29 and13 into the annular space 32 under the piston 21. When sutcient pressureis exerted on the oil in tube 27 the entire piston assembly raises andforces oil from the space on top of piston 19 through openings 34 intothe production tubing 11. After the piston assembly reaches the top ofits stroke the pressure imparted to the oil in tube 27 is released andthe piston assembly is forced downward due to a diiferential of forceacting on the piston assembly.

The forces tending to move this piston assembly upward and downward aretabulated and identified as follows:

Di=total downward force of production liquid on the circular head ofpiston 19.

Uimhe upward force of the oil well liquid acting The forces tending tomove this piston assembly upagainst the annular surface 35 on the bottomside of the large diameter piston 19.

Uz=the upward force of the power liquid acting against the annularsurface 36 at the lower end of the intermediate diameter piston 21. Thisforce U2 is composed of the sum of two forces H1 due to the static headof power liquid between the surface 36 and the top of the ground, andP1, the force exerted on the power liquid by a power pump at the surfaceof the ground.

Uahe force of the oil well liquid exerted on the bottom of the smalldiameter piston 23 acting only on the upstroke of the piston assembly.

Uli'ue force of the production liquid from the production tubing 11 andconduit 26 exerted upward against the surface of the small diameterpiston 23 only on the downstroke of the piston assembly. Y

When the sum of the forces U1, U2, and U3 is greater than D1 the pistonmoves upward on a pumping stroke and when D1 is greater than the sum ofthe forces U1, H1 and U4, and the piston moves on a downstroke.

When the piston moves on a downstroke the pressure liquid in the annularspace 32 is forced through tubes 13 and conduits 29 and 28 into conduit27; On the power stroke of the piston, that is its upward stroke, powerliquid from tube 27 flows through conduits 28 and 29 and tubes 13 intothe space 32 to raise the piston. The volume of power liquid introducedinto the annular space 32 is relatively small in comparison to thevolume of power liquid in the tubing 27. Also this volume of powerliquid in space 32 is used over and over again. In this manner the powerliquid which isY utilized in operating 'our pump need not be pumped tothe surface of the Power to drive our pump is supplied by increasing then pressure on the power liquid in tube 27. The amount of pressurerequired is determined by the ratio of area 36 to area 19, the ratio ofwell pressure to the pressure of the head of fluid in tubing 11, and theratio of specilic gravity of power liquid to the specific gravity ofproduction fluid.

By providing annular surface 3S', our pump is made Yto operate on thedown stroke without such an auxiliary device as a spring or a gaspowered cylinder. By properly choosing the area of the annular surface35, it is possible to provide that force D1 is greater than the sum offorces U1, H1 and U4, and when the pressure is reduced on the powerliquid in tube 27, the piston assembly will travel downward. An analysisof these forces follows: D1=area of piston 19 times the static pressureI of the column of production fluid in tubing 11. H1=area of annularsurface 36 times the static pressure of the column of power liquid.U4l=area of surface 37 times the pressure `of the column of productionuid in tubing 11 (ball valve 25 is open on down stroke).` U1=area ofannular surface 35 times the well pressure. When the specific gravity ofthe power liquid is equal to the specic gravity of the production fluid,the net downward force equals the area of annular space 35 times theydifference between the pressure of the production lluid in tubing 11 andthe well pressure. For a given set of conditions, annular space 35 canbe sized to provide a desired net downward force.

The pump assembly illustrated in Figure l of the drawingV is ofrelatively large diameter and is adapted to pump a relatively largevolume of oil on each stroke. In Figure 3 of the drawing is illustrateda pump assembly similar to that of Figure l but which assembly is of asuciently small diameter to be mounted and operated inside of ayconventional string of tubing, such as tubing 11 and Figure l.Referring to Figure 3 tubing 61 is as indicated a tubing similartotubing 11 of Figure l. Mounted on the bottom end of tubing 61 is acollar or coupling 63 having a small beveled surface 67 at the positionindicated along the inner surface. The upper section ofthe largediameter cylindrical portion of the pump 65 is also provided with abeveled portion containing grooves and O-rings seals 66 for sealing thespace in the tubing 61 above these beveled portions from the spacebelow. This sealing is necessary because if it were not provided oilwould be pumped upward through the pump 65 into the tubing 61 and thisoil would merely flow Vdownward and pass between the pump and collarback into the bottcm of the Well. By providing these seals 66 as the oilis pumped through the pump into the tubing 61 static pressure is exertedagainst the seals 66 and as the pressure becomes larger the sealingeffect becomes greater thereby not permitting flow of pumped oil fromtubing 61 downward around the pump toward the bottom of the well. Tube64 is for accommodation of power liquid tlowiug into aud out of the pump65. Other than thisV sealing means 67 the pump 65 is illustrateddiagrammatically in Figure 3 may be exactly like the pump illustrated ingreater detail in Figure l.

Figure 4 illustrates a variation of my invention in which a tube 75 forcarrying the power liquid is positioned outside of a production tubing71 in place of inside of the production tubing as illustrated in Figuresl and 3. In the embodiment of Figure 4 since the power liquid isintroduced into the intermediate diameter power cylinder as illustratedthis pump 74 need not be provided with such conduits as conduits 2S and2i) o f Figure l. The pump illustrated in Figure 4 is sealed to thetubing string to prevent back llow of pumped oil by threading same to acollar 73. This threaded joint is identified byreference numeral 76. Tothe bottom end of collar 73 is attached a protective tubing 72 whichpreferably contains some openings similar to opening 17 Figure l, andnot shown in Figure 4, for admission of oil to the pump.

In Figure 2 is illustrated an assembly of pumping apparatus in an oilwell containing oil 58. In this ligure the surface of the ground at thewell head is identified by reference numeral 51. The well is protectedyby a casing 52. Disposed down the casing is a production tubing 55carrying a pump assembly 57 of our invention. Disposed within the tubing55 is a small diameter tube 56 for accommodation of the power liquid. Apipe 53 is connected to the casing at the well head for withdrawal ofgas or for any -other purposes desired. A pipe 54 leads from the top ofthe tubing string 55 to oil storage tanks not shown.

The pistons of several diameters of our invention are of course providedwith rings or other sealing means to provide fluid-tight pistonoperation. The relative diameter of the three piston sections are sochosen that the static head of the production liquid in tubing 11 ofFigure l forces the piston downward on its intake stroke and so that thepower pump pressure applied to the power liquid at the well head neednot be excessively great. The maximum diameter of pump assembly will bedetermined by whether the pump is to be used inside of a string oftubing of conventional size or Whether it is to be used on they end of atubing string. In this latter case it will be necessary to mount thepump within the pipe 15 of Figure l and install this assembly by meansof a conv necting element such as bushing 12 to a section of tubing suchas tubing 11 and then lowering this pumping assembly into the well bymerely adding successive sections of power tubing 27 and productiontubing 11.

If the pump assembly as illustrated in Figure 3 is used, it is merelynecessary t-o assemble the protective tubing 62, the coupling 63 on thebottom of the production tubing 61 and then to run the production tubinginto the well. The pump 65 containing the 0-rings in their propergrooves is then run down the tubing by adding successive sections orjoints of theV power liquid tubing 64.

The pumping apparatus of Figure 4, as regards the protective tubing 72,the collar 73, the pump 74 will need to be assembled at the well head.This assembly is then lowered into the well by adding successive jointsof production tubing 71 and power liquid tube 75.

The materials of construction used in manufacturing pumps of ourinvention may be selected from among those commercially available takinginto consideration the corrosive nature of the oill and the like.

While certain vembodiments of our invention have been described forillustrative purposes the invention is obviously not limited thereto.

We claim:

l. In a liquid powered oil well pumping assembly of the characterdescribed, a stationary oil ow tubing disposed in an oil well, a pumpcase disposed huid-tight in the lower end of said ow tubing, said pumpcase having an upper and large diameter cylinder, a bottom and smalldiameter cylinder and a cylinder of intermediate diameter disposedrigidly to 'and between said large diameter cylinder and said smalldiameter cylinder, la reciprocating piston element in said casecomprising a large diameter piston, a small diameter piston, and anintermediate diameter piston disposed rigidly therebetween, the threepistons being disposed operatively in the three corresponding cylinders,said cylinders and said pistons disposed along a common axis, a tubularopening along the axis of said piston element, a valve in the lower endof said tubular opening adapted to pass production oil upward, a secondvalve in the lower end of the small diameter cylinder and below saidiirst valve, said second valve being adapted to pass production oil intosaid small diameter cylinder, sealing means intermediate the largediameter cylinder and the oil flow tubing to prevent leakage ofproduction oil therebetween, and a tube means communicating with theintermediate diameter cylinder at a level below said intermediatediameter piston at the bottom end of its stroke for introduction ofpower liquid to lift said reciprocating element and force production oilupward in said oil ow tubing and for exhausting power liquid therefromat such time as the liuid pressure in said oil ow tubing forces saidpiston element downward on its return stroke.

2. In a liquid powered oil well pumping assembly of the characterdescribed, an oil flow tubing disposed in an oil well, a pump casedisposed huid-tight in the lower end of and with respect to said owtubing, said pump case having three cylinders of successivelydiminishing diameters, a rigid piston assembly having three pistons ofsuccessively diminishing diameters, said three pistons operativelyfitting respectively in said three cylinders, said three cylinders andpistons disposed along a common axis, a conduit extending throughout thelength of said piston assembly, a rst valve in the lowest and smallestdiameter cylinder for admission of production oil into this cylinder, asecond valve in said conduit and above said first valve, said secondvalve being adapted to pass production liquid from said smallestdiameter cylinder to the cylinder of largest diameter, and a tubecommunicating with the intermediate diameter cylinder at a level belowthe intermediate diameter piston at the bottom end of its stroke forintroduction of power liquid to lift said reciprocating element andforce production of oil upward in said oil flow tubing and forexhausting power liquid therefrom Iat such time as the iluid pressure insaid oil ow tubing forces said piston element downward on its returnstroke.

3. ln an oil well pumping assembly of the character described, thecombination comprising a production oil ow tubing extending down an oilwell, a tube of larger diameter than the diameter of said oil ilowtubing being attached liquid-tight to the lower end of said oil owtubing, a pump case disposed in the larger diameter tube, the upper endof said pump case being adapted to discharge production oil into saidflow tubing, said pump case comprising an upper large diameter pumpcylinder, a second smaller diameter power cylinder rigidly attached toand disposed below said large diameter cylinder, a third and stillsmaller diameter oil pump cylinder rigidiy attached to and disposedbelow said second cylinder, a multiple piston assembly comprising threepistons of diameters to t operatively said three cylinders, said threecylinders and said three pistons diposed along ia common axis, a conduitdisposed along the axis of said piston assembly, a first valve in saidconduit for passing production oil from the small diameter cylinder tothe large diameter cylinder upon the downstroke of said piston assembly,ta second valve below said iirst valve in said small diameter cylinderfor admission of production oil into the small diameter cylinder uponthe upstroke of said piston assembly, sealing means intermediate thelarge diameter cylinder section of said pump case fand said largerdiameter tube to prevent leakage of production oil therebetween, a tubecommunicating with the power cylinder at a level below its piston at thebottom end of its stroke for introducing power liquid to said powercylinder to raise said piston assembly to force production oil up saidow tubing and to draw production oil into said small diameter cylinderand to exhaust said power liquid from said power cylinder at such timeas the fluid pressure in said oil ow tubing forces said piston assembly.downward and thereby forcing production oil from said small diametercylinder through said conduit into said large diameter cylinder.

4. An oil well pump comprising, in combination, a rigid pump case ofcircular cross section and having both ends closed, said case comprisingthree cylinders of unequal diameters, said three cylinders beingarranged in order of increasing diameters, a rigid piston assemblycomprising three pistons disposed operatively in the three correspondingcylinders, a conduit along the axis of said piston assembly, ya valve insaid conduit adapted to pass liquid in the direction from the smallvdiameter piston to the large diameter piston, a valve in the lower endof the small diameter cylinder adapted to pass liquid into the smalldiameter cylinder, at least one opening in the closed end of the largestdiameter cylinder for outlet of production oil, an opening in the end ofthe largest diameter cylinder nearest the cylinder of intermediatediameter for breathing during movement of the piston assembly relativeto said case, an opening at the end of the cylinder of intermediatediameter closest to the cylinder of small diameter for inlet of powerliquid to raise said piston assembly on its power stroke, a cylindricalcasing open at both ends surrounding said pump case, and means forsealing said cylindrical casing Huid-tight to the large diametercylindrical section of said pump case.

5. ln a deep well liquid powered pumping assembly of the characterdescribed, a production liquid flow tubing disposed in a deep well, apump case disposed Huid-tight in the lower end of and with respect tosaid flow tubing, said pump case having three cylinders of differentdiameters, said cylinders being arranged in order of decreasingdiameters from top to bottom, a rigid piston assembly having threepistons, said pistons fitting operatively into the correspondingcylinders, said cylinders disposed along a common axis, a conduitdisposed axially throughout the length of said piston assembly, a valvein the lower and smallest diameter cylinder for admission of productionliquid from the well into this cylinder, a valve in said conduit forpassing production liquid from said small diameter cylinder to the largediameter cylinder on downstroke of the piston assembly, at least oneopening in the closed end of the large diameter cylinder forcommunication between the space above the large diameter piston with theliquid ow tubing for outlet of production oil and for inlet ofproduction oil to return the piston assembly to the lower end of itsstroke, means for forcing power liquid from a power liquid tubingextending up the well into the cylinder of intermediate diameter toforce the piston upward on its pumping stroke and means for admittingthe power Iliquid from said cylinder of intermediate diameter into saidpower liquid tubing in 'a pulsating manner.

6. In a liquid powered oil well pumping assembly of the characterdescribed, a stationary oil liow tubing disposed in an oil well, a tubehaving a larger diameter than that of said oil ow tubing being attachedliquid-tight to the lower end of said oil flow tubing, a pump casedisposed 7 in the larger diameter tube, Said pump case having, an upperand larger diameter cylinder, a bottom and, small diameter cylinder anda cylinder of intermediate diameter disposed rigidly to and between saidlarge diameter cylinder and said small diameter cylinder, areciprocating piston element in said case comprising a large diameterpiston, Aa smallV diameter piston, and an intermediate diameter. pistondisposed rigidly therebetween, said three pistons being disposedoperatively in the three corresponding cylinders, said cylinders andsaid pistons being disposed along a common axis, a tubular opening alongthe axis of said piston element, a valve in said tubular opening'adapted to pass production oil upward, a second valve kin the. lowerendsof the small diameter adapted to pass production oil into said smalldiameter cylinder, sealing means intermediate theV large diametercylinderl section of said pump ease and said larger diameter tube toprevent leakage of production oil therebetweem'and a tube communicatingwith the intermediate diameter cylinder for' introduction of powerliquid to lift said reciprocating element and force production oilupward in said oil ow tubing and for exhausting power liquid therefromat such,

time the fluid pressure in said oil flow tubingV forces said pistonelement downward on its return stroke.

ReferencesV Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

